Denise Nappier waves to the crowd after she was re-nominated as State Treasurer at the Democratic State Nominating Convention in Hartford, Conn., Saturday May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Bob Child)

Denise Nappier waves to the crowd after she was re-nominated as State Treasurer at the Democratic State Nominating Convention in Hartford, Conn., Saturday May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Bob Child)

Photo: Bob Child, AP

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Democratic candidate for state treasurer, Denise Nappier marches in the Newtown Labor Day Parade in Newtown, CT on Monday, September 6, 2010.

Democratic candidate for state treasurer, Denise Nappier marches in the Newtown Labor Day Parade in Newtown, CT on Monday, September 6, 2010.

Photo: Shelley Cryan, ST

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Report: Treasurer Denise Nappier says she was pulled over because she was black

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State Treasurer Denise Nappier became "visibly irritated," used profanity and accused police of stopping her because she was black during a traffic stop in a Hartford housing complex on Sept. 1, according to a police incident report posted by a blogger and Hartford City Council candidate.

Kevin Brookman, who runs a blog called "We the People Hartford" wrote that he acquired the incident report by "alternate means" after requests from media and a Freedom of Information inquiry by Brookman were denied by police citing the ongoing investigation.

Since the traffic stop, Nappier and police union officials have traded words on what actually happened during the incident. Nappier said she was left to walk home after police determined her state vehicle was not properly registered, and she did not have proper insurance. The police union said Nappier was offered a ride home by three officers.

According to the report, Nappier told police that she was being harassed because she was black and driving on Barbour Street, known as a high-crime area. Nappier told the officer, Jill Kidik, that she wouldn't have been treated the way she was, had she been stopped in her upscale neighborhood on Whalley Avenue, near the West Hartford town line.

Nappier told police she was dropping off a friend at the housing complex around 8:30 last Thursday night. When police checked the license plates on Nappier's car, they determined that the plates didn't belong with the car. Nappier was ticketed for operating an unregistered motor vehicle, misuse of registration plates and driving with insufficient insurance.

According to the report, Kidik, who has be reassigned pending an investigation into the incident, asked Nappier if she could call someone to pick her up, or if someone could provide the proper documents to show Nappier was allowed to drive the vehicle.

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But Nappier chose to walk home nearly three miles. The report does not mention any offer made to Nappier for a ride home.

State's Attorney Gail P. Hardy said last week that there were no apparent violations and said the charges should be dropped. Hartford police are investigating the incident.

Nappier said in a statement released Saturday that the incident was a "convergence of unfortunate circumstances." She said the vehicle was properly registered to her and was fully insured. According to Nappier, the Department of Motor Vehicles said they failed to update the system that police had access to with new information about Nappier's fleet vehicle, after she received a new car, a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria, this year.

"The fact remains that I was stopped. This took place in an impoverished neighborhood in North Hartford, a community that certainly has very serious challenges, but also has decent, hard-working people families," Nappier said. "Good people can, and do, live in bad neighborhoods in our state."

Nappier said inferences made after the incident that her presence in the neighborhood meant she was there for illicit or illegal behavior are "outrageous."

"These innuendos are offensive and insulting," she said.

Nappier, a Democrat who has been treasurer since 1998, said a statement made last week by Hartford Police Union Vice President Officer Nazario Figueora that officers offered her a ride home was a "fictitious account of my understanding of the options before me."

Figueora said officers did nothing wrong. In an interview with WNPR, he called the Barbour Street neighborhood where Nappier was stopped a "well-known narcotics outlet," and a "high crime area." He said two officers were called to the area for a separate call and Kidik noticed Nappier's vehicle and thought it "stuck out." That triggered her decision to run the plates, Figueora said, and their decision to tow the car.

This is the second incident involving Nappier's state-owned vehicle this year. Nappier's car was ticketed for parking in a handicapped parking spot in West Hartford. She said in a statement issued at the time that an aide, who was her driver but no longer provides that service for her, parked the car. Nappier paid the $107 ticket.